The Indian Cricket Board and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) are likely to have a fiery exchange during the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) emergency board meeting on 4 February, a report said on Monday, 23 January.
The point of contention for the two parties is the Indian Cricket Board’s secretary Jay Shah’s announcement on the ACC’s calendar for 2023, which the PCB alleges was made “unilaterally” without consulting them, read a report on ESPNcricinfo. Jay Shah also happens to be the president of ACC. PCB Chairman Najam Sethi talked about the same in a press conference.
“For some time there hasn’t been any ACC Board meeting and there were a lot of decisions being made and one of them we have challenged,” Sethi said in a press conference. “Now the good news is that we managed to convince them to have their Board meeting and I will be attending it.”
I can say that that case wasn’t handled properly: Najam Sethi
Tensions were created between the two boards during the previous PCB chairman Ramiz Raja‘s tenure, specifically over the venue of the 2023 Asia Cup, which is scheduled for September in Pakistan. But it was thrown into uncertainty when Shah, soon after the Indian Cricket Board meeting last October, said the tournament would move to a neutral venue because India could not travel to Pakistan. With Sethi returning to the helm of PCB last month, he has taken up the issue and sought a meeting of the ACC Board to discuss the matter.
“We have to look at what we can do but we can’t [fight] another case, but I can say that that case wasn’t handled properly and I think we didn’t give a good fight. But eventually, even judges said that if you look through the microscope this case is in favor of Pakistan but if you see this case with a telescope this is going in India’s favor. So in nutshell, with all the nitty-gritty it’s Pakistan’s case, but then their stance was that it’s the [Indian] government which isn’t allowing us [to tour Pakistan].” Sethi was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
After years of isolation following the 2009 attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore, Pakistan has returned to hosting international cricket regularly over the last three years, with nearly all full members (other than India) visiting the country for red- and white-ball cricket. The 2022 Asia Cup (postponed from 2021) was originally meant to be hosted by Pakistan, but the event was eventually hosted by Sri Lanka in the UAE.
